This invention relates to worldwide network telephone systems and more particularly to telephone number portability within worldwide network telephone systems and the assignment of telephone numbers therein.
The public telephone system is operated by entry of a series of numbers by such means as pulse dialing a rotary telephone, pressing buttons of a push button telephone to enter dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) or pulse codes, and initiating some automatic entry device such as a modem or facsimile machine or out-of-band customer premises equipment signals as in ISDN sets. Currently within United States local telephone calls require seven digits (YXX-XXXX) and long distance calls require the same seven digits plus a three digit area code at the beginning. A long distance code digit of xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d or some other long distance code is also added before the area code and the seven digit local number. Originally the first three digits of a local number identified the telephone switch that would process the call, and to a great extent still do. That was the switch to process the call because historically that was also the switch to which the telephone having that local number was connected. As the original regulated telephone service monopoly to break up and competition began, the idea of number portability became important and popular. A basic form of number portability for people who wanted it is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,604 issued Aug. 17, 1993 to D. Ryan. In the Telecommunications Act of 1996 local telephone service companies are required to provide local telephone number portability where possible.
Since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the public switched telephone network (PSTN) has continued to become more open and competitive. Many localities already have multiple mobile telephone service providers, multiple long distance service providers and multiple local service providers. For customers to receive the maximum benefit from such competition, true portability of telephone numbers must be provided. Telephone number portability allows the customer to change service providers and/or geographic locations without changing telephone numbers. For commercial enterprises that is important because it means the telephone numbers on the stationary, the business cards, the yellow page advertisements, the fax machine settings and their customers"" memories do not have to change to remain successful when the enterprise changes its service provider. This is especially important if a customer has a special number that takes advantage of the letter sub-sets of the alphabet that appear on numbers 2 through 9 of a rotary dial or a push button keypad to spell out some significant sequence. Examples of such numbers for toll free commercial entities are: xe2x80x9c1-800-ABCDEFGxe2x80x9d (also known as xe2x80x9c1-800-222-3334xe2x80x9d) for selling reading and spelling learning aids, or xe2x80x9c1-800-HOLIDAYxe2x80x9d (also known as xe2x80x9c465-4329xe2x80x9d) for Holiday Inn Hotel reservations and information. Holiday Inn Hotel is a trademark of Bass Hotels and Resorts Inc. Non-toll free special numbers either long distance or local are possible also. Such numbers have a goodwill value, which would be lost if the number was not portable when the customer changed service providers.
Because of the costs in customer goodwill, stationary, and personal contacts, many areas have mandated number portability. Number portability means that numbers not normally assigned to a local telephone switch can be transferred to customers of such a local switch. That is why number portability is sometimes referred to as personal numbering. But the very existence of number portability/personal numbering frees telephone numbers and opens the door for enlarged use of telephone numbers. Such enlarged use is possible anywhere that telephone calls can be made by dialing or keying according to alphabetic characters on the calling terminal, no matter what language or alphabet is used. Because of the value personal numbering can have worldwide it is desirable that such be extended to other countries and other languages, where possible.
Briefly stated in accordance with one aspect of the invention, the aforementioned problems are addressed and an advance in the art achieved by providing a method of assigning a telephone number to a subscriber that has an intrinsic value. The method includes the steps of: creating a first database of valuable combinations at a first location; comparing numbers not in use at the first location to the first database of valuable combinations to create a first database of valuable combinations available for assignment; creating a second database of valuable combinations at a second location; comparing numbers"" not in use at the second location to the second database of valuable combinations to create a second database of valuable combinations available for assignment; searching the first database of valuable combinations available for assignment with a keyword; searching the second database of valuable combinations available for assignment with the keyword; returning results to the subscriber of the keyword search of the first database of valuable combinations available for assignment offering the subscriber a first number for the first location; returning results to the subscriber of the keyword search of the second database of valuable combinations available for assignment offering the subscriber a second number for the second location. Upon subscriber""s acceptance, the first and second numbers are assigned to subscriber in their respective locations. After the numbers are assigned, they are removed from the databases containing available numbers. Because of differences in number control and allocation in the first and second locations, the first number and the second number can be and are identical. Where identical numbers are not available in the first and second locations, the first and second numbers searched out and assigned have the same terminating digits.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the aforementioned problems are addressed and an advance in the art achieved by providing a method of assigning a telephone number to a subscriber that has an intrinsic value. The method includes the steps of: creating a first database of valuable combinations at a first location; comparing numbers not in use at the first location to the first database of valuable combinations to create a first database of valuable combinations available for assignment; creating a second database of valuable combinations at a second location; comparing numbers not in use at the second location to the second database of valuable combinations to create a second database of valuable combinations available for assignment; searching the first database of valuable combinations available for assignment with a keyword; searching the second database of valuable combinations available for assignment with the keyword; returning results to the subscriber of the keyword search of the first database of valuable combinations available for assignment offering the subscriber a first number for the first location; returning results to the subscriber of the keyword search of the second database of valuable combinations available for assignment offering the subscriber a second number for the second location; searching for the keyword in a third database of numbers not in use in a third location having a different country code than the first and the second locations; and returning results to the subscriber of the keyword search of the third location and offering subscriber a third number for the third location. Upon subscriber""s acceptance, the first, second and third numbers are assigned to subscriber in their respective locations. After the numbers are assigned, they are removed from the respective databases containing available numbers.